"Wehrmacht; among others, on 10 March 1945. The 1,950m long railway bridge was the last Rhine bridge remaining in German hands. On 23 March, Wesel came under the fire of over 3,000 guns when it was bombarded anew, in preparation for Operation Plunder. That day 80 Lancasters from No. 3 Group RAF attacked Wesel. Then that night of 23/24 March, 195 Lancasters and 23 Mosquitos of RAF Bomber Command No. 5 Group aided in the softening up of the German defenders. 97% of the town was destroyed before it was finally taken by Allied troops and the population had fallen"
"to persevere and secure the ultimate victory. Operation Varsity was a daylight assault conducted by two airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division and the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, both of which were part of the U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps. Conducted as a part of Operation Plunder, the operation took place on 24 March 1945 in aid of an attempt by the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group to cross the Rhine River. Having learnt from the heavy casualties inflicted upon the airborne formations in Operation Market Garden, the two airborne divisions were dropped several thousand yards forward of friendly positions, and"
"only some thirteen hours after Operation Plunder had begun and Allied ground forces had already crossed the Rhine. There was heavy resistance in some of the areas that the airborne troops landed in, with casualties actually statistically heavier than those incurred during Operation Market Garden. The British military historian Max Hastings has labelled the operation both costly and unnecessary, writing that ""Operation Varsity was a folly for which more than a thousand men paid for with their lives ..."" Famous are these airborne operations against the Japanese. In September 1943, in New Guinea, the U.S. Army's 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment"
"River Roer. During February, 1945, Second Army entered a holding phase. Whilst it pinned down the German forces facing it, the Canadian First Army and US Ninth Army made a pincer movement from north and south (Operations Veritable and Grenade) which pierced the Siegfried Line in that area and cleared the remaining German forces west of the Rhine in conjunction with further American offensives in the south of the Rhineland. Second Army crossed the Rhine on 23 March in an attack codenamed Operation Plunder. It then headed across the North German Plain towards Osnabrück, with the First Canadian Army on"
"Cologne. However the Americans were delayed by two weeks when the Germans destroyed the Roer dams and flooded the American route of advance. As a result, the Canadians engaged and mauled the German reserves intended to defend the Cologne Plain. In Operation Plunder, starting on 13 March 1945, the British Second Army and the US Ninth Army crossed the Rhine at various places north of the Ruhr and German resistance in the west quickly crumbled. The First Canadian Army wheeled left and liberated the northern part of the Netherlands and adjoining areas of Germany, the British Second Army occupied much"
"line in the Netherlands and in Operation Varsity: the air assault landing over the River Rhine on 24 March 1945. Operation Varsity was the last major battle on the Western Front during the Second World War. The gliders carrying the 2nd Ox and Bucks, including the glider carrying Tillett and D Company HQ, landed in daylight, north of Hamminkeln, east of the River Rhine, on the north-east perimeter of the 6th Airborne Division's landing zone. The Germans met the landing gliders with ferocious fire in the air and on the ground; the 2nd Ox and Bucks lost 400 killed or"
"further disrupted the schedule. After the Allied counter-offensive in January, Eisenhower planned an assault over the Rhine in the same area, and Operation Varsity was revisited on February 10 with few changes in the outline plan. Its objective was to seize the low wooded heights overlooking the Rhine to prevent German artillery from disrupting bridging operations. The British 21st Army Group commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery would cross the Rhine in ""Operation Plunder"". Varsity would support the crossings by landing two airborne divisions of the Airborne Army's US XVIII Airborne Corps by parachute and glider behind the Rhine, near"
"subsequently authorized by Eisenhower. Plunder envisioned the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C. Dempsey, and the U.S. Ninth Army, under Lieutenant General William Simpson, crossing the Rhine at Rees, Wesel, and an area south of the Lippe Canal. To ensure that the operation was a success, Montgomery insisted that an airborne component was inserted into the plans for the operation to support the amphibious assaults that would take place, which was code-named Operation Varsity. Three airborne divisions were initially chosen to take part in Varsity, these being the British 6th Airborne Division, the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, and finally"
"north, the Allied 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery crossed the Rhine in Operation Plunder on 23 March. The lead elements of the two Allied army groups linked up on 1 April 1945 east of the Ruhr Area to create a massive encirclement of 370,000 German troops to their west. While the bulk of the U.S. forces advanced east towards the Elbe river, some 18 U.S. divisions remained behind to destroy the isolated forces of Army Group B. The reduction of the German pocket was begun right away on 1 April by the U.S. Ninth Army, with the"
"crossing of the Rhine River called Operation Varsity in March 1945. Evacuated wounded personnel to rear-zone hospitals. After V-E Day, the group evacuated prisoners of war and displaced persons to relocation centers. Returned to the United States in August 1945, became a transport squadron for Continental Air Command until inactivation in November 1945. Postwar the squadron was activated in the air force reserve in 1947 at Orchard Place Airport, Illinois, operating C-46 Commandos for Tactical Air Command Eighteenth Air Force. Became part of Far East Air Forces in 1951 in Japan. Equipped with Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars and engaged in"
"use of Panzerschreck rocket launchers and Tiger tanks, the 82nd manage to secure the bridge for American Sherman tanks to cross, while Travers receives a promotion to Corporal for his actions. After Market Garden ends in failure for the Allies, Travers transfers to the 17th Airborne Division. In March 1945, his division takes part in Operation Varsity, landing within an industrial complex in Essen, Germany, to destroy its stockpile of munitions and tanks, while shutting down its weapon production facilities. Despite a counter-attack by heavily armored Allgemeine SS troopers wielding MG42s, Travers manages to overcome the new threat to successfully"
"has been no investigation by Canadian authorities of the event. In early April 1945 the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division, part of II Canadian Corps, moved out of the eastern Netherlands as the Western Allies launched their invasion of Germany in the wake of the crossing of the Rhine in Operation Plunder. The Canadian official history described the circumstances as buoyant as it was recognised that the end of World War II in Europe was close. On 4 April, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, part of the 4thCanadian (Armoured) Division, made an assault crossing of the Ems river and"
"rest. The rest did not last long, however, and later in the month they relieved the marines at Smakt and began preparing for Operation Plunder, the crossing of the Rhine. At 22:00 on 23 March 1945, No. 3 Commando crossed the river in Buffalo landing vehicles and began moving on Wesel, where, on 25 March they cleared the centre of the town and captured a large number of German prisoners. After this the brigade continued to advance, moving through Ruddenburg and Greven before carrying out an attack on Osnabruck, which No. 3 Commando led, on 4 April 1945. The next"
"an American crossing of the Rhine River called Operation Varsity in March 1945. Evacuated wounded personnel to rear-zone hospitals. After V-E Day, the group evacuated prisoners of war and displaced persons to relocation centers. Returned to the United States in August 1945, became a transport squadron for Continental Air Command until inactivation in November 1945. Postwar the squadron was activated in the air force reserve in 1947 at Orchard Place Airport, Illinois, operating C-46 Commandos for Tactical Air Command Eighteenth Air Force. Inactivated at the start of the Korean War in 1950, its aircraft and personnel being used as fillers"
"an American crossing of the Rhine River called Operation Varsity in March 1945. Evacuated wounded personnel to rear-zone hospitals. After V-E Day, the group evacuated prisoners of war and displaced persons to relocation centers. Returned to the United States in August 1945, became a transport squadron for Continental Air Command until inactivation in November 1945. Postwar the squadron was activated in the air force reserve in 1947 at Orchard Place Airport, Illinois, operating C-46 Commandos for Tactical Air Command Eighteenth Air Force. Inactivated at the start of the Korean War in 1950, its aircraft and personnel being used as fillers"
"an American crossing of the Rhine River called Operation Varsity in March 1945. Evacuated wounded personnel to rear-zone hospitals. After V-E Day, the group evacuated prisoners of war and displaced persons to relocation centers. Returned to the United States in August 1945, became a transport squadron for Continental Air Command until inactivation in November 1945. Postwar the squadron was activated in the air force reserve in 1947 at Orchard Place Airport, Illinois, operating C-46 Commandos for Tactical Air Command Eighteenth Air Force. Inactivated at the start of the Korean War in 1950, its aircraft and personnel being used as fillers"
"Tom Rennie Major-General Thomas Gordon Rennie CB DSO MBE (3 January 1900 – 24 March 1945) was a British Army officer who commanded the 3rd Infantry Division and later the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division during World War II and was later killed in action during Operation Plunder, the crossing of the River Rhine in March 1945. Educated at Loretto School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Rennie was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) on 16 July 1919. Attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1933 to 1934, he saw active service in the Second"
"in the establishment of a bridgehead on the east bank of the River Rhine which involved the British 6th Airborne Division and the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, under Major General William Miley. Varsity was the airborne component of Operation Plunder, in which the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C. Dempsey, and the U.S. Ninth Army, under Lieutenant General William Simpson, crossed the Rhine at Rees, Wesel, and an area south of the Lippe Canal. Both divisions would be dropped near the town of Hamminkeln, and were tasked with a number of objectives: they were to seize the Diersfordter Wald,"
"German soil. In March 1945, the plan for Operation Varsity was to drop two Airborne divisions (the British 6th and US 17th), including the Regiment, behind enemy lines north of Wesel, isolate the industrial Ruhr and disrupt the German rear defences. On 24 March, 78 gliders set off from England for a successful attack that established bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Rhine. The first guns were in action within 10 minutes of the gliders landing. By the evening, all of the divisions' objectives had been taken but 2 Battery Commanders and 20 Other Ranks had been killed, with"
"the Rhine River in early 1945 (Operation Varsity) and later flew numerous freight missions to carry gasoline, food, medicine, and other supplies to allied ground forces during the Western Allied invasion of Germany in April 1945 near Wesel. The squadron also hauled food, clothing, medicine, gasoline, ordnance equipment, and other supplies to the front lines and evacuated patients to rear zone hospitals. It transported displaced persons from Germany to France and Belgium after V-E Day. Remained in Europe during the summer of 1945, inactivating as part of the United States Air Forces in Europe, October 1945. Reactivated in the reserve"
"that he transferred all of the LIII Armeekorps' armor to Carl Püchler's LXXIV Armeekorps. In early 1945, SHAEF commander Eisenhower gave Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and the British 21st Army Group the responsibility to be the first to cross the Rhine and capture Germany's Ruhr industrial heartland. Montgomery meticulously planned Operation Plunder through February and into early March with the offensive set to begin on 23 March. Mindful of Montgomery's plans, General Eisenhower ordered Omar Bradley to secure the Remagen bridgehead but to limit the expansion to an area that could be held by five divisions. On 9 March Bradley"
"of 1945, Ninth Air Force troop carrier units flew airborne parachute and glider units again during Operation Varsity, the Allied assault over the Rhine River on 24 March 1945. Operation Varsity was the single largest airborne drop in history. The operation saw the first use of the Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando transport in Europe, operating with the reliable C-47 Skytrain of previous airborne operations, an experiment which ended with the catastrophic loss of 28% of the C-46s participating. Ninth Air Force tactical air support operations were flown over western Germany until the end of hostilities on 7 May. However, once the"
"Liberator bombers were dispatched to strike the bridge. They hit it with four bombs but the Germans quickly repaired it. The 446th Bombardment Group attacked the bridge again on the next four consecutive days from 28–31 December 1944. More bombers struck at the bridge during raids in January and February 1945. On 5 March 1945, B-24 bombers from the 491st Bombardment Group attempted one more time to destroy the bridge, but failed. Operation Lumberjack was planned to prepare the way for Field Marshal Montgomery's massive Operation Plunder, an operation that rivaled the Normandy landings in size and complexity, eventually involving"
"the German positions. At dusk Operation Plunder, an assault river crossing of the Rhine by the 21st Army Group, began. For their part in Operation Varsity, the 6th Airborne Division was assigned to the American XVIII Airborne Corps alongside the United States 17th Airborne Division. In the British sector the 3rd Parachute Brigade would be the first unit to arrive in Germany. Their initial objective was to secure the western edge of the Schneppenberg woods. Brigade headquarters was fully aware of the expected opposition to the landings, and the commander of the 224th (Parachute) Field Ambulance was warned to prepare"
"of the 1st Commando Brigade to Venray where they carried out rehearsals for Operation Plunder, the crossing of the Rhine. Over the course of two weeks training was undertaken at a creek near Wansum and on 23 March 1945 the assault took place, with the objective being the capture of the town of Wesel. No. 6 Commando went across in the second wave on board storm-boats crewed by engineers. They came under fire almost immediately and as a result of this, and several mechanical failures, a number of boats were sunk before they reached the landing site at Grav Islet,"
"Operation Grenade During World War II, Operation Grenade was the crossing of the Roer river between Roermond and Düren by the U.S. Ninth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General William Hood Simpson, in February 1945, which marked the beginning of the Allied invasion of Germany. On 9 February, the U.S. Ninth Army—operating under Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group since the Battle of the Bulge—was to cross the Roer and link up with the Canadian First Army, under Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar, coming from the Nijmegen area of the Netherlands in Operation Veritable, which had started at 05:00 on"
"a total of 1,346 casualties in the space of five days, between 24 and 29 March, when Operation Plunder came to an end. After it had participated in Operation Varsity, the 17th Airborne Division continued to advance through Germany as a part of XVIII Airborne Corps, engaging German forces around Wesel, Essen and Münster. When Germany unconditionally surrendered on 7 May 1945, the division was conducting occupation duties in northern Germany. The 17th Airborne Division was relieved of occupation duty on 14 June by British troops, and the division was split up and its component units attached to other airborne"
"the Rhine River called Operation Varsity in March 1945. After V-E Day, the unit evacuated prisoners of war and displaced persons to relocation centers. Returned to the United States in August 1945, until demobilizing. Inactivated as an administrative unit in September 1945. In 1949 Continental Air Command reorganized its reserve units under the wing base organization, which placed support units under the same headquarters as the combat group they supported. As part of this reorganization, the 438th Troop Carrier Wing was activated at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. The 88th Squadron was activated along with the wing. The squadron's manning,"
"the date for Plunder/Varsity as March 24, which SHAEF approved on March 8. On the afternoon of March 23, Brereton and Coningham, commanding all the cooperating air forces, made the final decision to launch Varsity when weather officers predicted clear weather the next day. Although the Germans had anticipated the assault and prepared positions for 10,000 defending troops, the unprecedented size of the airborne operation overwhelmed the defense. Using 300 double-tow glider sorties, a troop carrier group of 72 Curtiss C-46 Commandos, and three parallel ingress lanes, nearly 17,000 troops were concentrated in the objective area in less than four"
"1945 (Operation Varsity) and later flew numerous freight missions to carry gasoline, food, medicine, and other supplies to allied ground forces during the Western Allied invasion of Germany in April 1945 near Wesel. The squadron also hauled food, clothing, medicine, gasoline, ordnance equipment, and other supplies to the front lines and evacuated patients to rear zone hospitals. It transported displaced persons from Germany to France and Belgium after V-E Day. Remained in Europe during the summer of 1945, inactivating as part of the United States Air Forces in Europe, October 1945. Reactivated in the reserve as a Curtiss C-46 Commando"
"them, and they had to be found by laborious prodding – and the process repeated every time tracked vehicles wore away the surface, or shelling disturbed the sand. During the crossing of the Rhine on 23–24 March 1945 (Operation Plunder), 59th GHQTRE was allocated to XXX Corps, with its commander, Lt-Col R.E. Lloyd, acting as Commanding Royal Engineer for the right-hand assault towards Rees by 153 Brigade of 51st (Highland) Division. Preliminary engineer work included improving the approaches to the crossing points, cutting gaps through flood banks, and moving forward stores. During the assault, the role of 59th GHQTRE (with"
"Armoured Corps was redesignated 4th Royal Tank Regiment to replace the original. The newly retitled regiment equipped with Buffalo LVTs took part in Operation Plunder, ferrying troops of 51st Highland Division across the Rhine on the night of 23/24 March 1945. The Commanding Officer (Lt-Col Alan Jolly) carried the same standard that was originally carried across by 17th Armoured Car Battalion of the Royal Tank Corps in the First World War. Once again the RTR was first across the Rhine. In 1948 it assisted in the ending of the British Mandate over Palestine. In 1959, it was again amalgamated with"
"in the Ardennes over the New Year and in January, they returned to mainland Europe. During the Ardennes Offensive, the Brigade was given the task of holding a stretch of the river Maas; it was during this period of operations that Lance Corporal H. Harden, a medical orderly of the RAMC attached to 45 RM Commando, won the Victoria Cross. The Brigade's next large-scale operation was the crossing of the river Rhine at Wesel. Intensive training and detailed planning were the keys to the remarkable success of Operation Plunder on 23 March, which incurred less than 100 casualties. Operation Plunder"